Diamond Encrusted
by The Legend of Derpy
Summary: Diamond Tiara wasn't counting on the fact that Celestia would soon be visiting her school house, especially after she had blown off her homework assignments - friendship reports to the Princess herself - for the last five weeks in pursuit of her lavish lifestyle. And she sure wasn't counting on being the sun Goddess' newest student due to a misunderstanding.
1. Bright as Diamonds

Diamond Tiara didn't need to work for many things in her practically jewel incrusted life. Her father's riches provided for whatever a brat of her age could demand; live entertainment, various dolls played with once then thrown away into the corner of her memory in pursuit of newer things, pets that would have died from lack of proper care had it not been for her various underpaid maids. There was also a fair deal of hallucination on the pink bully's part, as she avoided a single truth: her father's money could not buy everything.

One of those things was a friend.

Now, usually, she would point to Silver Spoon and be content with saying the two were the best of pals, even if it was a slight mistruth (at least on the grey mare's part). But as of late, the usually smart-Aleck filly had been acting out of character, avoiding Diamond like the cutie pox. Diamond didn't question the odd behavior. She just lacked the capacity to care.

She lacked the capacity to care about many things; her greatest strength as a born-ready business mare and her greatest weakness in regards to humanity.

Monday morning awoke a slew of fatigued school fillies and disastrous hair brought on by missing hair brushes plus general discontent. It was the bane of all weekday existence, not to mention her own, and anything Diamond Tiara viewed to be pointless must very well so be without point. It was just one of those things she knew. Diamond daintily strutted into the school house, making sure that everypony took careful note of her finely patted and brushed fur, particularly her newly polished crown. She felt them staring. They too, the commoners, deserved a little morning treat. After all, give or take a few years and about have of the fillies in that room would be working under her in cubicles. Drifting back to Monday, she found it hard not the scowl. If and when Daddy was mayor of Ponyville (he had been dominating Equestrian politics as of late), she decided, taking her seat carefully as to not disrupt her carefully groomed coat, she would bribe him into legally banning Mondays. In any event, Tuesdays had a much better sound to them.

Cheerilee, standing center stage in the one room school house wiped a bead of sweat off her brow, already tuckered out by the daunting sun that loomed in the windowsill. There was nothing more she desired at the moment but a hot bath. But she pressed on, smiling at her students. They came first, not her wasteful flights of fancy.

"Good morning, class!" she called. In return, the school teacher was thrown a few effortless gargled good-morning-Miss-Cheerilee's , influenced by a clear lack of sleep and the fact that it was a Monday. A frown replaced her once cheery composure.

"Now class, are we really going to have that attitude?"

"Good mornin', Miss Cheerilee!" Apple Bloom yelled, nearly leaping out of her seat. Her eyes were wide with consciousness and no bags riddled them carelessly. Cheerilee lapped it up, in an effort to energize the class.

"Now, Apple Bloom, how are you so awake this morning?" The filly brightened, only too happy to share.

"Well ya see, Miss Cheerilee, us Apple Family get woken up by our rooster every early mornin' fer farm work, so ah guess I'm used to this!"

Diamond Tiara wanted nothing more than to smack her head against the stiff surface of the desk. Her intolerance levels were running dangerously low, and it was too early in the morning to hear the incoherent babblings of a farm hick. She shot a glance in Silver Spoon's direction, wanting some back-up on her obviously strong and well based opinions. Her friend was already asleep, however, drool forming a puddle large enough for a duck to freely swim on. Diamond winced and ignored the saliva, instead turning her head to the front of the classroom. Cheerilee was done fawning on the farm girl and was instead at the tail end of a sentence, holding a piece of paper at the end of her hooves.

"...first is due next Monday." she finished.

Diamond Tiara blinked, unaware of what had just happened. Time flies when you're having fun, and Diamond assumed anypony in her mere presence was having fun (well, except the three blank flanks and their stupid club, but who cared about them?). Perhaps that's how it worked, and she was satisfied with that theory. Again, she turned to her friend, who now was awake but with eyes wanting nothing more than to close their shutters. The puddle of spit had suddenly disappeared, and Silver's arm fur was mysteriously wet. Diamond once more mentioned nothing on the matter.

"Were you paying any attention?" the pink pony scoffed, flipping her mane up with an elegant toss of the head. She could feel the eyes of the interested colts in the back, and chose to ignore them. Eye contact would be too much of a morning treat. But really, she thought, who could blame them for staring?

"I wasn't sleeping, honest!"

"Who said anything about sleeping, idiot?"

That caught the mare off balance, but she didn't respond, instead diverging into another topic of conversation. "So, are you gonna start your letter to the Princess when you get home?"

Diamond had been staring at her reflection on the desk's hard surface, wondering how a nasty old coot like her dad had assisted in the creation of such a gem as herself. "Huh?", she answered, mind in other places.

"Weren't you paying attention? Miss Cheerilee is giving the class a new assignment. We have to write a letter to the Princess once every week. For four weeks, apparently. Something like that. I wasn't actually listening, you know." Silver Spoon didn't enjoy looking like a know-it all, though that's who she was at heart, and hastily tried to cover up her words with careless expressions and an awkward slouch she hoped sent the message of "I really don't care". But Diamond Tiara didn't buy it, she could see through people in that way. Again, however, she didn't mention it, and instead threw her head into the air with a groan while perfecting the same slouch Silver was in. Her feet sunk further into the dirt floor.

"Are you kidding me? How boring! I'm not doing that, I have more important things to do!" She actually had none, but she was sure she could think of something.

Silver looked at her funnily. "You mean that you're just gonna blow it off?"

"Pfft, yeah. Why?"

She hesitated in her response. "I don't know, Diamond. It might not be so good to blow off something that's being sent to the Princess herself."

She shook her head at the mare's idiocy. "Silver Spoon, please. As if Celestia sits around waiting for the letters of filly-schoolers. I bet she won't even read them."

"You...you really think so?" A tone of disappointment rang in her voice, and Diamond did her best to pretend that she didn't hear it.

"I do. Don't worry about it. It's not like Celestia's going to visit you herself, right? She has better things to do."

* * *

It was a run-of-the-mill day in Canterlot, as Celestia sat around waiting for the letters of filly schoolers. Of course, they wouldn't be arriving for a day or two, but she had nothing better to do. The sun was doing an excellent job moving itself for the day - sustaining such a powerful Celestial body as the sun could be difficult, but she had to keep up appearances - though she supposed she shouldn't mention that to anyone. It wasn't as if letters and impending conspiracy theories was the only thing on her mind, of course: great rulers learn to multi-task efficiently, and she was currently stamping approval papers for a cause that escaped her mind. Perhaps I need to work on my slipping memory before attempting multi-tasking, she thought with a smile.

Letters from Twilight were becoming more infrequent as the months rolled by, she noted, and quickly ignored the thought with little success. It was stupid for her to think that the pony was shunning her, of course: she wasn't worried about that. But Twilight was growing up, the aged ruler noted with a sigh not uncommon to pass her lips these low spirited days. And her student had devoted her time to a new lesson, one based on age, understanding. The Princess understood it well, and did not chastise the mare for it. It was all a part of growing up. But the fact of the matter was that friendship is a vast ocean of knowledge, one Twilight might have navigated successfully but not discovered fully. It would take many more pupils and more years than she could count to chart the sea of friendship, if it was even possible.

Celestia stamped the final page and looked a list that stuck its head out from a stack of other papers, numbered with the names of fillies. She supposed, if she was ever to complete her task, she ought to start with a new student soon.


	2. Dull as Silver

Silver Spoon fiddled idly with the papers on her desk using curved hooves and a lack of determination. She had an idea of what she was going to write to the Princess in her letter, clay waiting to be formed with her artistic hooves into words and phrases, but her heart didn't hold the necessary vivacity to write down her creation. But as the sun dipped further and further below the never-ending horizon, and her eyes refused to move in their dazed panic out of her movie screen sized window, the need for words became more dire as minutes dropped at her hooves like flies. Finally she worked up the courage to write her opening greetings, something that in itself was much harder than she expected it to be.

"Dear Princess Celestia..."

Lost in the consuming shadow of distracting thoughts, she waved her pen - thick, for ease of Earth pony handling - and let the sparks of a half hearted firework doodle spill from the utensil's tip over the word "Princess". Silver wondered how many times the words had been written, "Dear Princess Celestia", and then how many declarations of war had started with that sentence as a letter header sent to the ruler by a fervent, newly crowned head looking to expand their land into Equestria, and how many more had started with those same letters strung in a line after the same leader got a taste of furious fighting via the Equestrian armed forces. Darkness crouched in the corner of her room as the sun made a desperate descent, and Silver forced herself to concentrate on the coarse paper, pulling her mind from its well formed, complex thesis of war. Imagining her useless thoughts being swept away by a large, wooden broom, the filly erased the extra lines surrounded her ruler's name and was about to start writing when it occurred to her that her previous inspiration was long gone, leaving a messy trail of broken thoughts behind in her mind. She allowed her back to dig deeper into the plush covers of the bed while repressing a small scream, the sheets being the approximate color of a fallen cherry blossom and most likely on par with the expensive of a small cottage. Her spine pushed onto a blush pillow ladened with buttons uncomfortably. Silver would just have to make do without her previously laid out words, though she was certain they were absolute gold and lamented silently. Resuming the assignment with a sudden burst of passion, the pen glided across the ghostly white paper wordlessly as if on its own.

"Friendship is not a given in any situation. It needs to be earned by means pure of heart, not through methods such as lavish gifts, force, wealth..."

Silently cursing herself, she considered crossing out both sentences all together and then giving up all together. She had often been told that her writing's voice dwelled far past above her own age by parent and teacher alike, and though she realized this to be a compliment, it often embarrassed her. Not wanting the Princess to believe the gray mare was a know-it-all, she striked down the offending words with a flick of her wrist. Silver imagined them screaming as they met an inky death, strangled by the one who bestowed upon them life to start with. It made her smile, and she continued her work.

"Sometimes, ponies who call themselves your friends are anything but."

A wince came about the mare's eyelids.

"I myself have lived through this situation..."

"My closest friend in the world is a filly named Diamond Tiara. Sometimes I do not know if she feels the same, or if she just thinks that she does. We have nothing in common, and I feel constantly forced to things against my will with her, from major things such as taunting smaller students to lesser things, mainly stupid tea parties in her mansion. I want to stop, but I can't. I'm afraid to lose her. I'm afraid to lose myself, and everything that defines me."

She sighed, the scent of roses lining her breath due to a healthy snack of roses a hour prior. A word little fillies had no business using was thrown from the female's lips and shattered onto the floor.

It would be the first of many rough drafts that night.


	3. Creamy as Paper

One week turned into two, two weeks into three, and despite her empty promises to a simply stretched-thin Cheerilee, Diamond Tiara had not written a single letter to be forwarded to the commander of the brightest celestial body in their seeable skies.

She had instead contented herself with a numerous amount of tea parties, in which she invited - or rather forced - Silver Spoon to attend, mindless shopping with twenty of her best maids (on her father's valuable suggestion, to carry bags) for items of frivolous worth, and the occasional spa visit. The number of missing letters was growing by the day, which the filly tried not to think too hard about as to not riddle her face with premature wrinkles. At one point Diamond considered the easy way out of things, which was to hand a piece of empty paper to an idle butler and command him to dirty his hooves with vocabulary at the nearest typewriter. Yet she knew from unfortunate experience that Cheerilee had in expert eye when it came to differentiating between phrases the common school attendee would use and the words of an adult. She therefore decided that the verbal punishment following the inevitable affair handed to her by the snobby school teacher wouldn't be worth it, even for a D marking.

She wasn't even sure if Cheerilee would read the letters, in any event, but that was too much thinking catering one unimportant topic on her part.

The fifth week of missing letters had finally rolled in, and Diamond Tiara was stuck at her age worn desk for another riveting day of a game she liked to call "why didn't Daddy enroll me in private school". Today's weather ponies brought rain, and after a rare occurrence in which Silver Spoon was ten minutes late for class, the first time in two years, and was caught in the expected downpour, her friend was recovering her signature silk fur in the one room schoolhouse's bathroom under the heat of a blow drier. Silver now missing from the seat situated perfectly next to the young filly, nothing separated Diamond from Apple Bloom except the dusted air. Diamond desperately prayed to not catch fleas under her breath.

A bag sat ajar next to the filly's desk at well, a gray one possibly imported from Mareis, Prance. Diamond Tiara knew the bag well enough. She had once had the pleasure of owning such a bag herself for about a week before satchels had made an unexpected leap back into popularity and in turn Diamond had ditched the four thousand bit bag for a newer, more sapphire encrusted bag. Sticking out of it was a cream piece of paper, and the top of the sheet read "Friendship Report Number Eight", asking to be freed from its velvet lined confinements. Curious and almost pleased to meet the paper's wishes, she pulled it out of the bag and scanned it.

_"Dear Princess Celestia,_

_The weeks have passed, and it is sad to say that I have seen no improvement in my friend whatsoever. She is blind to my interests, my feelings, and my thoughts, and this leads to an uneasy relation between her and myself that I do not think she is yet aware of. Though I wish to bring you more positive news, my friendship lesson of this week is as follows: an oblivious friend is no friend at all._  
_I apologize for the short letter in advance. I'm afraid that I am not exactly in friendship celebrating mood._  
_Your faithful supporter, Silver Spoon."_

Diamond chuckled. Her friend was clever, pulling this trick. A fake report to send so the little filly did not have to expend herself learning! Come to think of it, the prank had continued all five weeks of the project, and Diamond leaned back in recollection. Silver must have enjoyed herself greatly; these last weeks she had been positively anxious to return home and finish up her mini-essays she pinned as letters. Now knowing the cause gave the rich filly a feeling of involvement, as if she had finally found her way into the core of a great secret.

A voice hovered over her, causing her heart to leap in surprise. "Do you plan on handing that in anytime soon?" Her face met that of Miss Cheerilee's, who looked back at her paper with a satisfied grimace of sorts. "I'm glad to see you've finally started to take your work seriously, Miss Tiara."

Diamond coughed up her pride and displayed fake energetic aura to encase the teacher's thoughts. "Yes, Miss Cheerilee! I was just proof reading it as you came over! Do you mind giving me an extra minute to look over this? I see a few spelling errors."  
The school teacher excreted warmth in response. "Of course! Just walk up to my desk when you're ready."

As soon as the purple mare had trotted away to prevent Snails from eating another tube of paste, Diamond readied her reflexes lest her friend make an appearance on the scene. Grabbing a pencil with two hooves out of her black purse (satchels were completely last month), she easily erased her friend's name and, for good measure, the friendship report number on top. Replacing her name with that of her friend's in a few strokes, she rolled the paper up and nearly knocked over Twist on her way to the teacher's desk. Panting from the most effort she had ever put into anything in her life, she was about to walk back to her desk with her head held high when she knocked into yet another wall of white. She shook her hoof.

"Celestia, Twist, stop being such a twit and sit down before you knock off my fake eyelashes with your tacky coat."

"You called, my little pony?"

The fur of the mare had suddenly turned brighter in Diamond's eyes, and Twist had, for all appearences, grown five feet in height. Looking up, she had locked eyes with a mare whose large eyes challenged the size of her cutie mark and sported a pastel mane supported by invisible winds.

Celestia had paid a visit.


End file.
